babai būjhahi nāhī mūṛe bharami bhule terā janamu gaïā.
aṇhodā nāu dharāio pādhā avrā kā bhāru tudhu laïā.3.
-Guru Granth Sahib 434
The Patti by Guru Amardas Sahib comprises eighteen stanzas (couplets), each containing two lines. The first stanza is followed by the rahau, which informs that the study of mere worldly accounting and writing systems is futile unless they help the being to introspect about their deeds in life. The remaining stanzas are addressed to the Pandit, the teacher, and it is stated: O foolish Pandit, you never remember IkOankar. You will regret wasting your life when you depart from this world. You are not on the path and are also leading your students astray. Though you read religious texts, you do not put them into practice. You are consumed by material attachment. This life is an opportunity to connect with the all-pervading IkOankar, but you live in ignorance. Whereas those who connect with the Wisdom (Guru) and sing praises of IkOankar settle all their accounts and are honored in the court of IkOankar.
Commentary
Literal Translation
Interpretive Transcreation
Poetical Dimension
Calligraphy
O mind! What kind of account have you studied that giving the account of your deeds has remained hanging over your head? Delivering the message through the letter ਬ (‘babbā,’ #28), Guru Amardas critiques all the people in this couplet who misguidedly claim to know the path to IkOankar (One Creative and Pervasive Force, 1Force, the One), the experts, the Pandits, self-assumed protectors of the faiths, and more. Blindfolded by our own ignorance and foolishness while claiming to know the path to connection, we all wander in our individualized darkness. Quick to advise and dispense suggestions, we forget to evaluate our capacity to advise. We give free advice without a thorough assessment, but Guru Amardas reminds us to check ourselves here. He encourages us to practice discernment and not self-identify with any titles without first becoming worthy of them. Oblivious and without this check, we add to our own account of deeds and those we seek to make our subjects through our ill-fighting advice. Our ego prevents us from accepting what we do not know, and we are conditioned to fill those gaps with unverifiable knowledge. But to not accept our lack of knowledge, birthing ignorance in the lives of others, is like pulling people along while unknowingly walking towards a cliff. It’s akin to a math teacher unaware of addition and subtraction attempting to teach students mathematics. The learned and the learner, meaning all of us, in our unawareness, often become domineering and project our ways onto others. In our naivety, we forget that ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ are relative terms and believe we are ‘right’ alone. Having others follow the same route, we seek validation, but is it just? Guru Amardas gives us a forewarning here, asking us to introspect and reflect on what a true teacher really is. If we are not yet true teachers, can we push others down unknown and unknowable paths ahead of us?
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